Yelp’s new political action committee set to lobby Congress

According to a December 31, 2013 filing with the Federal Election Commission, Yelp is set to open its own political action committee, or PAC. The PAC will allow the popular reviews site to collect money and distribute it to legislators as a way to influence policy.

In November, Yelp hired its first lobbyist, Laurent Crenshaw. In his official lobbying registration form filed in November 2013, the former House staffer said that he was interested in working on patent and copyright reform bills along with a potential federal-level anti-defamation (anti-SLAPP) bill.

Further Reading

And Romney's making small in-roads into the traditionally Democratic area.

Other Silicon Valley firms have PACs too: Google’s NETPAC is worth about $1 million, while Facebook’s is worth about $200,000.

Yelp executives have also previously donated small amounts of money to political candidates and organizations.

Donation records also show that Luther Lowe, Yelp’s director of public policy, donated $500 in August 2013 to a Republican congressional candidate from Arkansas. The company’s vice president, Michael Ghaffary, donated $250 in January 2013 to “Americans for Responsible Solutions,” a gun control nonprofit founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

Promoted Comments

The PAC will allow the popular reviews site to collect money and distribute it to legislators as a way to influence policy.

Sigh. That's all it really is anymore. There's not even much, if any, pretense to integrity anymore up in Washington. Now it's just about who can push the most money into politicians pockets in order to enact policy change.

Well, yeah. Basically the idea is, politicians are busy; to convince them you're worth their time, you buy it from them. At least, this is the model my US government teacher proposed to my class.

It's really not so much that you're actually paying for politicians to agree with you, but having them listen to you for an hour certainly helps, and two hours - bought with even more $$ - likely increases your odds. I'm not saying the system is good; it still sucks and gives rise to corruption, but at least there are varying levels of it? lol